Catch Me When I Fall
by KP-X
Summary: [ Kite x BlackRose ] The battle is won, the World safe, friends awakened... so why aren't our heroes celebrating? 'Kite? Helba? One of you want to tell me why I can't log out?
1. Aftermath

**Catch Me When I Fall**

**Author's Note**: First new fanfic in a while, ne? ; I was working on my two Xenosaga fictions when I came up with this brilliant idea, and had to start it. I loooove Kite x BlackRose stories, they're sooo cute! This won't have much fluffy stuff in it, but that is thee pairing. Oh, and if you find any errors or inconsistencies in this story, feel free to tell me -.-; It's been a long time since I beat the game. So… sit back, relax, enjoy the fic, and REVIEW, dang nammit!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own .Hack or any of its characters ;-; … but if I did, I would steal Balmung and- (censored).

Chapter One – **Aftermath**

"Mo… ther…" Aura's gentle voice whispered. Kite, still wide-eyed and baffled, barely had the chance to register that his dagger was buried into the small form of the young girl before he was blinded by an explosion of white light. Throwing and arm across his face to protect his eyes, he strained to hear the feminine scream that could only be the dying Morganna, and the barely audible words that followed.

"Fool… you may have won this battle, but you won't be celebrating for long…"

Blankly, he wondered what she could possibly mean by that, but cast it aside as an idle threat. Morganna thrived on fear and despair- he guessed that this was her final desperate attempt to instill fear in him. Still… "Aura," he whispered mournfully. The young girl had done nothing but save lives and attempt to rid the World of the spreading infection- she didn't deserve the same fate as her so-called 'mother'.

As he felt his feet touch solid ground, the blinding light faded gradually until he could see the strange, but welcome scenery of Net Slum. He almost laughed out loud in pure glee and relief as he saw the turned back of his previously comatose friend Orca and the large group of people he stood with- a reminder that all their hard work had paid off. His giddiness at their victory, however, faded quickly as he saw the grim expressions on the faces visible to him from where he stood, and was replaced with a raw, sick feeling twisting in his stomach. He took a tentative step forward, then another, and another, gradually speeding up until he was at a full sprint towards the group, stomach churning in unbridled fear.

A few heads turned as Kite skidded to a halt next to them, but no one had the courage to say anything. Orca merely turned to him with a solemn expression and placed a hand on his shoulder to show his support. Kite tried to read his friend's face- but his emerald eyes betrayed nothing. He swallowed hard, clenching both daggers tightly in his thickly gloved hands. This was bad. He'd rarely ever seen Yasuhiko so serious.

Dimly, Kite heard someone crying, and took a hesitant step forward as the crowd parted to let him through. Orca's hand fell from his shoulder, and all at once, Kite felt his strength desert him. At his feet sat a young and unfamiliar boy that he could only guess was Kazu, wailing and cradling the head of a young girl… a heavy blade, with a head of pink hair.

Kite felt his knees give out from under him, his twin blades clattering noisily to the ground as his grip on them went slack, and he lowered himself to kneel next to the girl. '_No…_' He reached a trembling hand towards her tattooed arm, breath catching in his throat when she didn't even flinch at the contact. "What… happened?" he managed to choke out, praying with all his being that this was some sort of practical joke, that she would just wake up and yell at him for being stupid or rude again. The only movement among the crowd of people around them was the shaking of Elk's staff in his weak grip, tears running down his face- although no one could tell for certain whether he was mourning for the late Mia or BlackRose- perhaps for both.

"She…" Kazu hiccupped, trying to gain control over his tears, "she just… fell unconscious here and in the real world when Aura disappeared… I-I don't know what to do… she j-just won't wake up!"

It had to be Morganna. It _had_ to be. No one else would have the power to do this, or a despicable enough nature to _want_ to do this. So this was what she had meant… Kite cursed himself for not guessing this sooner. Then again, he had to admit that he couldn't have done much even if he had known. But… if Morganna was gone, how could she continue to have influence over player characters? And, more importantly, how were they supposed to fix it?

"Helba," Kite said softly, not trusting his voice at the moment. "Can you tell us anything about this? Anything at all?"

The blonde-haired woman shifted uncomfortably, obviously not wanting to be the bearer of bad news. For once, she was not her smug, confident self- she'd never had close contact with the girl, but she was still a friend, an ally, and one of the heroes responsible for saving the World. "No, Kite, I'm sorry. The only thing that I can tell you is that this is Her doing. For what purpose or what effect it will have, I have no idea," the hacker said softly. "I would have no idea where to start. At the moment, we don't even know what the problem is. The only thing we can do for now is wait and see what happens."

He didn't like that. He didn't like that at all. He was just supposed to sit here and do nothing while BlackRose might be drifting further and further away from him? Still, he had to admit, she was right; they could do nothing until they found out what the problem was. Acknowledging her somewhat vague answer with a brief nod, Kite reached to brush a few loose strands of hair from the pink-headed girl's face. His vision blurred as he replayed the last events from the fight with Morganna, silently berating himself for things he could have done differently- _should_ have done differently. Maybe if he had, BlackRose wouldn't be lying here, helpless as she was. Maybe, if he had-

A shocked gasp snapped him from his self-loathing thoughts, and he turned his head to see Kazu, looking like a deer caught in headlights as he scrambled to get away from his sister, as if she suddenly had the plague. Inquisitive gazes from the entire group focused on him, and poor Kazu stuttered incoherently before turning his terrified eyes to Kite- both freezing as their gazes met.

"Well, what's the matter?" Balmung broke the silence with some amount of impatience, arms crossed and a glare upon his face- but his eyes betrayed him. Anyone who looked closely would be able to see the worry and concern buried within those cerulean depths (**A/N**: -drool-).

"She… she's logged out… her computer's _off_! The ambulance took her away already! H-how can she still be here!"

Kite felt his heart drop into his stomach.

"Perhaps a lag in the connection?" Lios suggested, looking quite disturbed himself with the recent turn of events.

"No," Helba said, gripping her staff tightly. "If that were the case, Kazu would be lagging as well. You are using the same connection from a different terminal, am I correct?" she looked down at the younger boy. He swallowed hard and nodded. Kite had to admit, it honestly was quite handy to have an elite hacker on their team.

"Well, then what the hell could it possibly be!" Marlo shouted from the back of the crowd, never the most polite or patient of people.

"…I may know," Helba said after a moment of tense silence. "But you won't like it." That got everyone's attention. Balmung and Lios appeared to be the only ones uninterested; Kite guessed that they knew of whatever Helba was referring to. Lios had pointedly averted his gaze, an almost ashamed look on his face, and Balmung had lowered his head and closed his eyes, a troubled look gracing his features.

"Do you all know the story… of the player character, Tsukasa?" Helba started.

"Well… yeah, who doesn't?" Rachel put in. "But wasn't that just a rumor? I mean, C.C. Corp made a big deal out of telling all the players that it was just a story. They even threatened to ban users that kept talking about it."

"C.C. Corp is not something that should be referred to as 'reliable'. Most people are willing to compromise other peoples' safety to save their own hides- no one wants to take the blame for something that big," the white-clad wavemaster said. A few pairs of eyes turned to Lios, expecting a reaction: but to their shock, he did nothing. "The story was true. I don't know about the details you might've heard, but Tsukasa was a real player that became trapped in the World after his body in the real world fell into a coma."

There was another uncomfortably long silence, this one broken by a much softer feminine voice. "Are you saying that BlackRose is trapped here?" asked Terajima Ryoko, wringing her hands nervously.

"I can't say anything for certain right now, but… it is a possibility that we must consider," Helba said gravely.

Kite felt like he was going to be sick. How could this have happened? Weren't things supposed to go back to normal after they defeated the 'Cursed Wave'?

'_Damn it!_' Kite clutched his head in his hands, chanting every curse he knew of in his head at Morganna. Why did it have to be BlackRose? Why couldn't it have been _him_? She had done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve this.

"Look, we know nothing for sure yet," Wiseman spoke up, seeking to pacify the tortured expression on Kite's face. "She may yet awaken and be absolutely fine. Besides, Morganna is gone, so whatever it is can't be permanent, right?"

Oh, how Kite wanted to believe that was true. No one could really know what Morganna was capable of- even her creator was unable to stop her fury.

"She's waking up," Sanjuro said in a low voice. Indeed, the girl was stirring and mumbling incoherently. Kite's heart began to beat faster, and he gently took one of her hands in both of his and squeezed it to let her know he was there. "Oh, my head…" she grumbled, raising her free hand to rub at her head as she sat up. "I feel like I got hit by a goddamn bus…"

That got a smile out of a few people. She seemed to be herself, at least.

"Sis?" Kazu asked, scooting towards her. "Are you okay?"

"BlackRose, do you remember who we are?" Kite asked urgently, leaning forward to search her crimson eyes for any sign of recognition, any spark of memory. She drew back at his close proximity, blinking confusedly, and Kite felt his heart fall.

"What kind of stupid question is that?" she said finally, sounding mildly irritated at the insinuation that she didn't remember them. She withdrew her hand from his grasp to smack him upside the head, making his red hat fall over his eyes. "Who could forget an ugly mug like yours, Kite?"

He pushed his hat away from his eyes, overjoyed to see the laughter in her gaze, and a collective sigh of relief came from the group. Kazu launched himself at his sister, letting out a choked cry that was halfway between a laugh and a sob. The impact sent them both sprawling onto the ground.

"Oof!" BlackRose felt the wind knocked from her lungs as Kazu tackled her. "Kazu, what's gotten into you? Geez, have you all gone insane?"

"We thought you were… you were…" Kazu trailed off as his eyes clouded over, and BlackRose's slightly irked expression turned into one of horror as he sniffled.

"Oh no, don't you _dare_ cry! I didn't go through all that hell of getting you back just so you could get all weepy on me," she reprimanded, but her voice was gentle. Kite felt his heart melt when her ruby eyes softened and she sat up, cradling her little brother in her arms as he calmed down. Kazu smiled as he rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his palms, willing his tears to go away.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, crawling out of his sister's laugh and looking a bit sheepish. "Guess I'm a little old for that, huh?"

"Never," the older girl grinned as she drew him into another tight hug. "You'll always be my baby brother." Kazu blushed in response, but didn't say anything.

"Not that this isn't touching and all," Gardenia commented, "but could we finish discussing the topic at hand?"

BlackRose glared in her direction, but nonetheless let go of Kazu and stood up slowly. Her eyes widened as she wobbled a little bit, arms spread to help her keep her balance. Kite grabbed her forearm gently to steady her, and she smiled at him in thanks. She looked away before she could notice the blush slowly starting to spread across his face.

"So… why is everybody so freaked out? What happened?" Her eyebrows drew together as she spoke again before anyone could answer her. "Wait, something's not right here…" Kite's breath caught as she frowned.

"Kite? Helba? One of you want to tell me why I can't log out?"

**Author's Note**: So? Good? Bad? Review and let me know The next chapter will be coming out soon… I hope e.e; It depends on how long it takes me to type it, and how much spare time I have to do so…


	2. Explanations

**Catch Me When I Fall**

**Author's Note**: Yay for chapter two! Much of this chapter can probably be described as 'comic relief', since the beginning was so angsty and serious. Honestly, I just decided to have some fun with BlackRose's character, since I can depict her somewhat accurately (or so I've been told). I really don't know what I was thinking when I wrote it, but if the shoe fits, wear it, right? Um, yeah... just remember to review.

**Disclaimer**: There are a lot of things I don't own. Like you, for example, or this video game, .Hack. But someday, I will own everything. Yes, even you.

Chapter Two - **Explanations**

She was calm. She was collected. She could handle anything that they decided to throw her way.

"WHAT!"

Well... _almost_ anything.

"So, let me get this straight... Kite defeated Morganna, but in her final dying moments, she put a curse on me that trapped my mind here and sent my body in the real world into a coma... and now she's gone and everything's back to normal, except that no one has a clue how I'm supposed to log out and get back to my body."

"That is what seems to be the case," Balmung answered.

Sighing heavily, BlackRose closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead with one hand, draping the other over her knee. "Wonderful," she said sarcastically, rolling her crimson eyes. "Now I can dedicate my life to fighting Agents and learning Kung Fu."

"Excuse me?" Balmung raised an elegant eyebrow.

"_Please_ don't tell me you haven't seen The Matrix," she said flatly, earning the attention of a few other players.

"What's that? A TV show?"

Silence. Everyone stared incredulously. "Okay, Balmung, I've determined that you desperately need to be shot," BlackRose stated, ignoring him when he bristled and opened his mouth to retaliate, turning her head back to look at Orca. "How can you _stand_ him?"

The said player shrugged, shifting the weight of his sword to rest upon his broad, painted shoulder and grinning wryly. "What can I say? He doesn't get out much."

The large group of players was still in Net Slum, sitting in what remotely resembled a circle and discussing the situation. Lios had left shortly after they had determined that there was nothing that more he could do, promising that when he returned, he would bring more information on the 'Tsukasa' story in consolation. Helba had done the same, vowing to contact a few players that she knew to be previously involved with Tsukasa for an inside story, and hopefully find some clues on how to solve the current predicament.

All in all, their chances of finding a solution or cure were looking considerably bleak, and it was driving BlackRose crazy.

"Oh, I give up!" she groaned, resting her elbows on her crossed legs as she dropped her head into her hands. "What I really need right now is a couple of Aspirin and a nice, long, hot bath..." She let herself fall back until she was laying sprawled on the ground, arms stretched over her head.

"I'm not sure if it would help, oh fair maiden of a fiery temper," Piros started, earning himself a heated glare from the girl, "but I do happen to possess a healing potion. Would you like to try it?"

That managed to catch her attention, and she sat up immediately. "Healing potion?" She blinked and thought about it for a moment. "It's never helped me before... but... since I'm stuck here, I guess I'll give it a try." She shrugged and took the bottle from Piros, cautiously raising it to her lips and tilting her head back...

-Only to fling the bottle away with a disgusted outburst, spitting repeatedly onto the ground and wiping her mouth vigorously with her arm. "Ugh! Just what the hell _is_ that! You trying to poison me!" she demanded of the heavy axeman, turning several inquisitive pairs of eyes in his direction.

"N-no, m'lady! It is just a healing potion, I swear!" To prove his point, he picked up the discarded bottle and drained the last of its contents, holding up the empty glass container for her to look at. "See?"

She was looking at him with an absolutely repulsed expression, as if he had just offered to wear a skirt and do the hula. "How can you stand the taste?" she asked, leaning away from him like he was an infectious disease.

"Taste?" The heavy axeman blinked and stared. "I taste nothing, fair maiden."

She was opening her mouth to yell at him again, but paused and frowned as another thought hit her. '_He's right... I've taken healing potions before, and I'm sure none of them tasted like that. So why now..?_'

"It appears that this is more like Tsukasa's situation than we had originally thought," Moonstone said quietly. At everyone's questioning glances, he sighed, irritated, and reluctantly continued. "It was rumored that when his consciousness became trapped within the game and he lost contact with his physical body, he experienced things like taste and touch within the World, something that the rest of us cannot."

"I get it," Nuke perked up, finally engaging himself in the conversation. He was never great at being serious, so when things called for a straight face, he usually kept his mouth shut. "His conscious mind mistook his virtual body for his real one." Moonstone confirmed this with a nod.

"But how is that even possible?" Natsume asked. "Can her mind really simulate sensations that she's not actually feeling?"

"No one can know for sure or not whether you can actually feel in this game, should a situation like this arise. The programmers of the World created Morganna to fill in the gaps of the program that they could not, correct?" Wiseman asked. At the affirming nods from the various other players, he continued. "Morganna can create things in this world that no programmer is capable of. I have no doubt that she could program it to simulate physical sensations. As for BlackRose's mind simulating its own feelings; as far as it knows, this world _is_ reality."

"Can we stop talking about me like I'm not here?" BlackRose cut in, annoyed.

That earned a chuckle from the wavemaster. "Sorry," he said, still smiling. BlackRose scowled at him, but reluctantly let it go.

"Kite, what do you think about all this? You've been awfully quiet," Mistral said imploringly. She didn't appear to be her usual energetic self, but no one was surprised, given the current situation.

"Hm?" the said twin blade raised his head as he was addressed, finally joining in the discussion with more than a little hesitation. "Oh, sorry, I was just thinking..."

"About?" Rachel prompted.

"Er... you know, what we can do to help BlackRose, how Morganna could've done this... things like that..." Kite fidgeted uncomfortably under BlackRose's scrutinizing glare. She could see right through him, and he knew it.

"Oh no you don't," she growled, standing up and marching over to were he sat. He stared wide-eyed at her as she pulled him up by the front of his red shirt and shook him violently, looking very similar to a bully demanding his victim's lunch money. "Now listen here, you stupid lunkhead. This is not your fault, understand? Not. Your. Fault. I was well aware of the risks when I started this god forsaken quest. Whining about it now isn't going to help anyone. You start moping around with this 'woe is me' shit and I'll pound the crap outta you, got it?"

Needless to say, the rest of the group was speechless. Except for Kazu, of course, who was trying his damndest not to laugh, but failing miserably.

Kite came out of his shocked silence as she put him down and released the fabric of his shirt, azure eyes filled with gratitude. In a moment of sudden boldness and courage, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her slender waist, pulling her into a loose, but warm embrace. "Thank you," he whispered into her ear, only loud enough for her to hear.

This time, _everyone _was shocked into silence; including BlackRose herself. For as long as she could remember, _she_ had been the one to do the comforting, the reassuring. She was, after all, the eldest child in her family. Granted, she had somewhat... different methods for comforting than most other people, but it worked nonetheless.

She'd never been held like this, but she liked it. She felt warm, safe, and cared for in Kite's arms.

For a moment, BlackRose forgot all about where she was and what she was doing, letting her body weight shift slowly until she was leaning against Kite for support, her own arms coming up to reciprocate the embrace. His arms tightened around her in response, and she heard, or rather felt, a quiet sigh rise from his lungs.

The quiet was shattered by poorly imitated gagging sounds, courtesy of Kazu, in typical 'annoying younger sibling' fashion. Just like that, the moment ended, and the spell was broken. Kite let go of the girl in his arms when he felt her start to tense up, and she immediately took off after her brother, death threats echoing through the mostly empty streets of Net Slum.

"Come back here, you little runt! Ooh, you are _so_ dead when I get my hands on you!"

Kazu was struggling to laugh and run at the same time, and the sight of the two siblings in the middle of their chase sent the whole group into hysterics. Nuke said he even took a screen shot of the scene, and promised to e-mail copies of it to the numerous other players that requested it.

Kite debated for a moment on whether he should help Kazu or not, but decided against it when his partner sprinted past him, and he saw the look of promised murder on her face. Nope, he liked his head right where it was, thank you very much.

"You can't run forever, you little twerp! I know where you sleep!"

This only heightened the laughter echoing through the town, although it was an idle threat, as BlackRose appeared to be trapped within the game's barriers indefinitely. Still, that didn't make it any less entertaining.

Kite looked down at his wrist where the bracelet had once been, drifting into deep thought after a moment and blocking out the sounds of laughter.

He didn't have long to think, however, because at that moment, the young Kazu bowled him over in his rush to get away from his sister. Kazu didn't stop, the impending wrath of BlackRose too close for him to be willing to take any risks. Kite's partner, however, skidded to a halt next to him and offered a hand to help him up. He gladly took it, smiling as she offered him a sheepish grin.

"Sorry. He can get kind of carried away sometimes."

Kite chuckled, re-adjusting his red hat and brushing imaginary dirt from his clothes. "I can see where he gets it from."

One pink eyebrow lifted. "Excuse me?"

Crap. Making BlackRose angry was a dangerous feat indeed... one that most people couldn't have the honor of claiming they had done and survived. He swallowed and stuttered for an excuse, but to his surprise, she just laughed and smiled at him affectionately.

"You're so predictable, Kite. You're cute when you're embarassed, though," she said in a moment of uncharacteristic honesty, and on impulse, leaned forward to press her lips to his cheek.

His eyes went wide again as he lapsed into speechlessness once more, and only then did the pink-haired girl seem to realize the implications of what she'd done, her face turning an interesting shade of red as she stammered for an excuse, claiming it a temporary lapse in sanity before taking off after her brother again. Kite could only stare after her dumbly, not even hearing the hooting and hollering of some of his friends.

Had that really just happened..?

As a thickly gloved hand rose to touch the cheek she had kissed gingerly, a large, goofy and lopsided grin spread across his face, unbeknownst to him.

It had definitely happened.

He felt significantly better than he had ten minutes ago.


	3. The Calm Before the Storm

**Catch Me When I Fall**

**Author's Note**: Woot, chapter three. This one is a bit longer than the previous ones, as you may have already noticed. I've finally begun the first few steps into the plot, although it appears that it's going to be moving very slowly, at least in the beginning. This chapter only reveals the first couple of clues to the main problem. Guess what it is if you like, but don't expect me to tell you if you're right or wrong! Perhaps if you review enough, however, I shall announce the winner who correctly guessed the plot twist in the upcoming chapters. Hee hee... if you have a guess, just post it on a review!

**Disclaimer**: Awww... I don't wanna say it... don't make me say it... -sigh- fine... I don't own .Hack or any of its characters... the lucky bastards at d3d2 Corp. Have that privilage... -mutter- though it's not like they _deserve _it...

Chapter Three – **The Calm Before the Storm**

"You _can_ log off, you know. You need to sleep _sometime_."

"Then I'll sleep here."

"What about school?"

"I'll call in sick."

"Every day? What if I never find a way out of here?"

Kite shrugged. "So I won't graduate. People can make a living without a diploma."

BlackRose threw up her hands in frustration. "For the love of God, Kite, this is ridiculous! I'm a big girl, I can handle a few hours alone!"

Kite leaned in closer, looking her straight in the eye. "If it were _me_ trapped in here, would _you_ go and leave me all alone?"

She sighed, exasperated, and once again lifted her hands to rub at her temples. "Of course not, but tha-"

"No it's not," Kite interrupted. BlackRose glared at him.

"I didn't even finish what I was going to say," she pouted.

"I _know _what you were going to say," he grinned slightly. "'But that's different', right? Well, it's not. I'm staying here no matter what you say, so you might as well just stop fighting it."

"That's not fair," she grumbled and crossed her arms across her chest in a huff, but he saw a reluctant hint of a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. "You know me too well."

"All's fair in love and war," Kite said, feigning innocence and grinning widely at his victory.

The two rogue players had been occupying the empty streets of Mac Anu for some time now, BlackRose bickering with Kite about how he refused to leave and get some much needed sleep. It was roughly 2:00 am in Osaka, where Akira lived, and Kenji's time- since she knew he lived in Japan- could not be more than an hour or two different.

"Kite," she begged, feeling drained. "Please? You're making me feel really guilty, here. Just log off and sleep for a few hours, will you? I'll be fine here."

She could see him hesitate, and mentally patted herself on the back, for it appeared as if her persistence had paid off, and she was going to win this argument.

"You're _sure_ you'll be okay?" he asked worriedly. She sighed tiredly, but felt a touch of warmth at his genuine concern for her.

"Relax, Kite, I'll be fine," she reassured him, then shifted into 'arrogant-warrior' mode, slapping him on the back and sending a scowl his way. "I'm getting tired of you hanging around me, anyway."

That got a chuckle out of him, although the uneasiness in his eyes remained. "Just... be careful, okay? We don't know what all is involved with living here physically. If anything were to happen to you-," he abruptly cut himself off as he realized what he was saying, blushing a bright red, and suddenly very interested in the artificial concrete below their feet. "Uh, what I mean is... it's not healthy for Kazu to worry about you right now, so take care of yourself, okay? Don't stress him out."

Confused for a moment, BlackRose eyed him oddly, and he avoided her penetrating garnet-colored gaze. After a few moments of deliberation she seemed to give up, shrugging and hoisting her oversized sword onto her shoulder with minimal effort. Kite breathed a quiet sigh of relief, relaxing his tensed shoulders.

"Okay... I'll be back in two hours, all right?" he said, pausing to consider the amount of time. Should it have been shorter..? Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to leave her here on her own for so long... but he could barely keep his eyes open.

"Oh, for God's sake Kite, give yourself more than two hours of sleep. Just wait until you wake up on your own, okay? I'm not going to die if you're not here to rescue me." She shook her pink-haired head, rolling her ruby eyes and looking at him crossly.

He bit his lip unsurely, but finally nodded. "All right... but I want you to e-mail me right away if something goes wrong."

"Yes sir, would you like some coffee when you get back, too, sir?" she mocked, once again rolling her eyes. Kite laughed, and she gave him a half-grin. "Just relax and have sweet dreams, okay? Goodnight, idiot."

He nodded back to her, smiling uneasily before he spoke again to her. "Goodnight, BlackRose." And he was gone in a flash of gold rings, leaving the mostly-empty World to the female warrior.

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She wasn't tired, and that seemed very strange to her. Maybe it was just the excitement of everything that had happened earlier, but... she didn't seem to feel even the _slightest_ bit fatigued. Considering that she had been in the exhausting battle at Kite's and Balmung's sides as they fought against Corbenik, one would think she'd be sore for weeks, and sleeping like a rock by now.

Still, she shrugged it off nonchalantly, passing it off as another side-effect of being stuck here in the World. It did offer constant surprises- that was one thing she'd learned in that stupid quest of theirs... _nothing_ here was impossible. The mere existence of Morganna herself should have been able to prove that.

A small, smug grin slowly overtook her features as she remembered their defeat of the seemingly invincible enemy, unconsciously holding her head higher with pride. She had saved the World, brought back the coma victims, and... and gotten herself trapped here. That last thought brought a scowl to her face. Well, _Kite _was the one with the bracelet... maybe this was _his _fault.

'_Right, Akira, just blame Kite for everything... you selfish dolt. _You're _the idiot that insisted on coming along, the one who dragged him to that stinking cathedral, calling him a newbie, then cowering in front of a harmless goblin. Now let's rethink this... _whose _fault is it that you're stuck here?_'

She abruptly deflated, sighing to herself as she admitted defeat to her voice of reason.

'_I need to kill something... now, where is that stupid portal?_'

Her trek through the seemingly endless dungeon continued as she withdrew a faerie's orb from her inventory, grinning in satisfaction as she entered the next room. '_At least these monsters should provide a bit of entertainment..._'

---------------------------------------------------------------

A low groan escaped her lips as she sat up slowly, holding her head with both hands. Her ruby orbs opened groggily, blurry colors slowly forming into shapes as her vision cleared. '_What happened..?_' A glance around told her that she was in a different field than she remembered leaving off at, laying peacefully in the soft grass and napping under the warm sun's rays.

'_That's funny... I don't remember coming here... _or _falling asleep here, for that matter._'

Something didn't smell right about this... but worrying Kite with it when he wouldn't be able to do anything about it was out of the question. The boy was impossible to reason with when it came to someone else's safety, and especially hers. He'd wear himself out by going crazy and trying to find an answer for it when it was most likely nothing. No, it was definitely better if he didn't know about this.

Nodding to herself in acknowledgement that she would keep this a secret, she stood up, stretching her aching muscles with a yawn. A hand came up to run her slender fingers through her pink locks in an attempt to comb it out, tussled and messy from her little nap on the ground. '_I wonder what time it is..?_' she pondered quietly, tilting her head and touching her hand to her chin in thought as she finished combing out her hair.

With an indifferent shrug, she gated out to the delta root town, her form de-materializing in a flurry of gold rings.

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God almighty, she was bored.

After spending almost her entire morning wandering around Mac Anu with nothing to do, she'd taken to sitting on the bridge's railing over the clear water of the river, staring down into its crystal depths. Any of the players wandering around here were not worth talking to, either looking to simply trade useless items or trying to convince her to join their party to go on a dungeon quest.

Spotting a pebble laying on the wooden boards behind her, she leaned back and scooped it up, tossing it into the cold stream. She watched as the small ripples disturbed the smooth surface of the water, squinting confusedly when the water's colors seemed to change, as if forming an image. Her own reflection seemed to have an addition on the water's surface, a mixture of purples and browns forming a small shape just above her own.

Frowing in confusion, BlackRose looked behind and above her, but blinked as she saw that no one was there. Upon looking back at the water, the forming image seemed to have disappeared as well. Her eyebrows knitted together as she tried to theorize what that could have been, but shrugged it off. Maybe it was a glitch in the game or something- such things had been known to happen.

A tall shadow fell across her figure, and another annoyed frown came to her face as she spoke up to the player blocking her sun. "Hey, do you mi- oh, Kite!" Her expression quickly changed into a smile as she turned around and caught sight of the player, clad in his bright red ensemble. He offered a sheepish grin in return, sitting down on the railing beside her and staring into the river.

"Sorry I took so long, I overslept, and then I checked with Lios to see if he knew anything new," he said quietly, feet swinging absently.

"Don't worry about it," BlackRose waved off his apology with a toss of her hand, content to finally have some company to end her long bout of boredom.

...Yes, Kite was here. It was a _lot _better than being alone.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't. Why wasn't he saying anything?

"So... how've you been?"

Ah, much better. A somewhat uncomfortable start to a discussion, but it was far better than awkward silence.

"I've been okay... you know, just wandering around, visiting a field here and there..." Damn, she was lame at trying to make conversation.

"That's good..." Kite shifted uncomfortably.

There was another awkward silence then, although it wasn't the same ticking-time-bomb silence that BlackRose occasionally defined, when it would lead to an inevitable blow-up... like that time with that idiot Nuke in their party, when he thought it would be hilarious to cast 'Absolute Zero' in a small, enclosed dungeon space. Nimrod. She'd made sure to let him know that such things were _not _acceptable. Player-killing was never really her thing, but to teach him a lesson, she'd been willing to make an exception. And since she'd had a full inventory of 'ressurects', she'd made sure to take advantage of this exception in her high morals.

Repeatedly.

Ah, yes, wonderful stress relief. There was nothing like hearing your victims beg for mercy at your feet when you were angry. She idly pictured her next possible victim in her mind, slowly coloring the clothes, the shoes, the blue hair, the annoying red hat, the two daggers that he always carried... dammit, if Kite didn't say something soon, she was going to-!

"BlackRose, I... I want you to promise me something. It's important."

Well... that hadn't been what she was expecting, but it was something. Good. She was tired of having to resort to violence.

Well... not really, but killing Kite wasn't as appealing as killing Nuke. She inwardly snorted at that thought. "What would that be?"

"I, um... I want you to promise me that you'll stay out of dangerous situations, and not do anything reckless," he said quietly, almost timidly, as if he knew she'd blow up at the mere suggestion of making such a promise. He wasn't too far off in thinking this, from the looks of it.

"What? What the hell for?" Perhaps... violence _wasn't_ such a bad idea.

"I just don't want you to get injured- you can physically get hurt in this game now, and I can't let that happen," he said solemnly.

"What the hell makes you think I need someone to protect me? I can take care of myself just fine, Kite!" she said in a huff, crossing her arms over her chest as she finished. She wasn't some baby that needed constant supervision. Yes, she was a big girl, she didn't need a babysitter.

...Often.

"I know you can, BlackRose... but there's a lot of things here you haven't taken the time to consider. Lios showed me the logs of the message boards... and there were some awful rumors going around about that Tsukasa character... some people said that when he died in the game, aside from feeling the physical pain... he suffered through an actual death before Morganna brought him back. I... I can't let that happen to you. I won't. And since Morganna isn't here anymore... you might not come back at all."

BlackRose pondered this new information, tapping her chin thoughtfully. What he said made sense, but he couldn't possibly expect her to just sit back and do nothing because of it. She wasn't afraid, regardless of whether she _should _have been or not.

When she seemed to come to a final decision, she lifted her head to look him in the eye, but trailed off when she saw the pleading look in his cerulean depths, a tug on her heartstrings making her reconsider her decision. Damn it. She couldn't resist that look, and he probably knew it.

With a heavy sigh, one hand lifted to rub the bridge of her nose, warding off the headache that she knew was coming. "I _know_ I'm going to regret this..." she muttered to herself, dropping her hand as she looked at him again. "Fine, Kite... I promise I won't do anything reckless."

"And?"

"And _what?_" she growled, eyebrows lowering in annoyance. She was answered in kind by a serious look of his own, and again she gave in and sighed. "Or dangerous," she finished, albeit reluctantly.

He looked overwhelmingly relieved, tensed shoulders relaxing a bit, but still sent her a skeptical look.

"What is it _now_?" she demanded impatiently.

"I have a feeling that your perception of dangerous and mine will be completely different," he said with some trepidation, looking down with a frown marring his features.

"Yeah, well, beggers can't be choosers," she grumbled, leaning back on her arms, braced against the wooden railing behind her. "I didn't want to make that stupid promise in the first place. Now I won't be able to have any fun on those dungeon quests."

Damn. So much for stress relief.

"I never said you couldn't go on any dungeon quests, I just said I don't want you to put yourself at risk."

"But it's only fun if you take risks! Beating weak monsters with lower levels than mine is _not_ my idea of a good time!" she complained. She probably would have been disgusted to know that her whining tone sounded exactly like the tone that Kazu used on her sometimes, wheedling her into getting what he wanted.

Kite stared at her incredulously. "Are you _ever _concerned for your own well being?"

"Only when I need to be," she snorted indignantly. "And now is not one of those times."

Drawing in a deep breath, Kite let it out silently in a quiet sigh, feeling drained all of the sudden. "Fine... you can go on some higher level dungeon quests, but only on the condition that you take me with you."

Take him with? What kind of stupid requirement was that? She _always _took him with her. '_Oh well, might as well play along._' Smile and nod. "Sure."

That thought, left to wander, brought up another serious question as the two fell into silence once again. She always took _him _with _her_... but that didn't necessarily mean that _he_ always took _her_. Did he go on a lot of dungeon quests without her? She'd never really thought of it before. It was entirely possible... he was a lot more popular than herself, to say the least. No, she scared off most people at first sight, unless they made an admirable impression on her, and that was extremely rare.

_Did _he go to a lot of places without her? It did bother her, but she couldn't honestly say she would blame him if he did. Still, it didn't seem completely fair. _She _was his partner, _she _was the one who had fought all of the phases with him. She'd helped him plenty of times without asking anything in return! After all, on that stupid dungeon quest she'd taken him to find an item so _he_ could level up, he'd brought that snot, Terajima Ryoko. What a jerk.

Although... he _did_ say that they'd both invited him to that same dungeon. She hadn't really given him any sort of hint to say that he should've chosen just one of them... but wasn't it obvious? Dammit, to think he'd probably gone on as many dungeon quests _alone _with that prissy Ryoko instead of her... it made her blood boil. Stupid dense two-timing sonofa-

"Uh... BlackRose?"

"_What?_" she snapped irately, her thoughts provoking a sudden sharp spike of anger towards the twin blade. This was, no doubt, _his_ fault, just like everything else that she felt like blaming on him at that moment.

He held his hands up in a peaceful gesture, confused as to what spurred her anger, and perhaps even a bit hurt. Hadn't he just made a concession to her, and she happily agree to it..? "Er... you looked like you were upset about something for a moment... I was just going to ask if something was wrong."

'_Oh. Nice one, Akira. Snap at him when he's just worried about you. Here comes the guilt._'

She sighed again, shaking her head and letting it droop forward as she spoke in a softer tone. "I'm sorry Kite, I didn't mean to snap at you, I just... have a lot on my mind lately, you know?" '_And I'm not so sure I want to trust you to not run off with that Ryoko bitch again..._' She would have slapped herself for that thought, if she were alone. Doing so in front of Kite, however, would probably result in the assumption that she had gone mad. Not that that assumption was _entirely _inaccurate...

"Oh, don't worry about it." Kite reached over to put a hand on BlackRose's bare shoulder, shyly blushing a bit at his own bold action. "We'll find a way to get you out of here, don't worry." He tried to offer her a comforting smile, but reflecting his own uncertainty about the situation, it came out looking more like a grimace.

She nodded sagely without looking up, but raised the hand opposite the shoulder he was touching and placed her hand over his, squeezing it lightly. "I know you will." She hadn't realized that she had said 'you' until some time after that, but Kite did, and his heart warmed slightly at her reassurance. It was proof that she believed in him and trusted him, if nothing else. Her vote of confidence in him helped to raise his spirits a bit, aiding in increasing his determination. He would make sure that her trust was not ill-placed.

He wouldn't fail her. He swore it.

(Akira and Kenji – I'm not sure if these are the players' real names, or if they even _have _real names, but these are the two most frequently used names for the players in most .Hack fanfictions that I've read. If I am wrong, please feel free to correct me.)


	4. Prelude to Destruction

**Catch Me When I Fall**

**Author's Note**: Hmm, coming along decently, isn't it? Thank you all so much for reviewing, I really appreciate your input! Already up to 25+ reviews, and only on chapter three! My other story, 'No Regrets' was four chapters long and only got 7 reviews. -growl- Oh well. We get a little more involved with the plot in this chapter, and part of what I wrote here pretty much gives away the secret... but I couldn't find the way around that without significantly altering what I had planned. Still, I shall honor the person that guesses the plot correctly in my reviews, if there is such a person. You guys are smart, so I'm almost sure there will be. Anywho, enjoy chapter four! Here, you finally get to meet one of the .hack/sign characters. I won't say who, though, you'll just have to read and find out!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own .Hack or any of its characters... if I could buy any of them as plushies, though, I'd want Mia and Elk. Sooo cute! Why _don't _they have plushies of them, anyway? I know there's one of Tsukasa, but he's not all that huggable...

Chapter Four – **Prelude to Destruction**

Kite suppressed a yawn as he gated into the delta root town, taking a moment to stretch his stiff muscles and look around somewhat boredly. He'd sent a flash mail to BlackRose only a moment earlier, and her response had been that she'd be there in a few minutes, still apparently working on clearing out a dungeon. He'd been surprised to discover that she was up and doing something that active so early in the morning, and briefly wondered if she'd slept at all.

An indifferent roll of his shoulders was his own response to his thoughts, trusting that the girl wouldn't be foolish or arrogant enough to ignore her own fatigue as he glanced around Mac Anu with his deep cerulean gaze. There weren't many people on this early in the morning, but he could see a couple players conversing in the town square. He started to approach them, but paused a moment when he heard a conversation behind him, next to the Chaos Gate.

"Did you hear? There's a new player-killer out on the loose."

"No kidding? Is it that super-fast twin blade guy again?"

It was nothing new, probably some newbies out playing a joke on someone. False rumors spread as fast as real ones did here, and not all of the things that came out of players' mouths were reliable.

"No, this one's different. It's a really high-level heavy blade, and get this... she's a girl!"

Kite stopped in his tracks. Could it have something to do with..? Nah, BlackRose hated player-killers... she'd never become one just for kicks. Well... excluding that one incident with Nuke in the dungeon. Even he had to admit, though; Nuke'd been asking for it. It had been more or less satisfying to see him get what BlackRose believed he deserved. He stifled a chuckle at the fond memory. '_I can't even remember how many times she killed him._'

"Really? A female player-killer? That's a first."

"Yeah, the guy said she was acting really weird, and attacked his party for no reason. On top of that, he said that she had these really strange black eyes."

"You mean like black pupils?"

"No, I mean black _eyes_. The way he described them, it was like you could see through them, and there was nothing there."

"Whoa, that's creepy."

"Yeah, and listen to this... he said her voice input system was acting up or something. It sounded- I don't know... staticy, like you'd hear on one of those old walkie-talkie things."

Something about this definitely didn't sound right. An unprovoked attack by a female player... who's character had illegally edited black eyes and a malfunctioning voice system? It seemed to be a little complicated for a newbie prank.

"So what happened to the guy and his party?"

"That's the really weird part. He said she used this special skill on one of his friends, and it knocked him out in real life! It had something to do with a bracelet, I think."

Kite's mouth went dry, and his breath hitched in his throat. He knew that skill all too well.

"Whoa! Was the guy who was knocked out okay?"

"Yeah, they said he woke up like an hour later, and felt fine except for a headache."

"Could it have something to do with the Deadly Flash?"

"I don't know, but it had similar effects. The government wiped out the guys that started the Deadly Flash though, didn't they?"

It was data drain. It had to be. No other skill or scroll could possibly produce those kinds of effects, and the Deadly Flash was a virus that was carefully screened for now. But... if a player had been data drained, why hadn't he been sent into a coma instead of just knocked out? And how could it still exist with both Morganna and Aura gone? Something about this story didn't fit, but it sounded far too dangerous to just be passed off as a prank.

...Especially since BlackRose was the one at risk. She'd endured so much to stay by his side this whole time, and he wasn't about to let her down now, when she needed his help the most.

He'd be damned if he just sat back and let her get hurt.

He needed to see Helba. _Now_.

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"Remind me again why you immediately dragged me out of Mac Anu the second I gated back in to take me here, to an empty low-level field?" BlackRose inquired irritably as they walked into the empty cathedral that they both knew well.

"I overheard something that two players were talking about," Kite swallowed hard, the color draining from his face as he recalled the memory, and the possible implications it could produce. "There's apparently a new female player-killer on the loose, with edited character data."

"So what? There are tons of player-killers out there! And glitches in character data aren't all that uncommon, y'know!" she waved her hands to gesture her statements, pausing a moment to emphasize her point by glaring at him with garnet eyes.

"She used data drain on someone."

That sentence alone was enough to make her face go as pale as Kite's, eyes widening as she stopped in her tracks and gripped the hilt of her sword tightly. "...What?" That was impossible... right?

"I don't know all of the details myself, I just know that we need to find Helba right now," he said quietly, deep azure gaze unconsciously drawn to his right wrist. Now wasn't the time to think about his own inner demons, pushing the guilt aside to focus on the subject at hand.

BlackRose could only nod seriously in response.

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"This is most disturbing, indeed," Helba said solemnly. "You said that you heard of no physical description except for the malfunctioning character data and that it was a female heavy blade?" here she glanced discreetly at BlackRose, though it was hidden behind the red visor that covered her eyes. The girl didn't seem to be acting conspicuous, however... rather, she seemed to be just as worried as Kite, biting her lip and staring down at the ground, hands clasped behind her back. The hacker immediately disregarded her initial suspicion of the girl's involvement in this new development, turning her attention back to Kite.

The young boy only nodded in response, his gaze pleading for her to provide an answer to his question.

She sighed softly, shaking her head negatively. "I'm sorry, Kite, we just don't have enough information to go on. I wish I could tell you what's going on, but I honestly don't have a clue at the moment. It's possible that either Aura survived and is trying to contact us, or this is Morganna's work, whether she's really gone or not."

A soft chime interrupted her thoughts, signaling the arrival of an email. She excused herself momentarily from the two players, opening the said email and skimming along its contents.

A slow smile steadily creeped over Helba's features, returning some of her previous characteristic arrogance and pride to her appearance, much to the subtle relief of Kite and BlackRose. "What is it?" the latter of the two inquired, eager to know what she was so happy about.

She looked up after a moment of silence, smug smile alighting her features as she spoke to the two younger characters. "We're going to go meet someone who may be able to answer your questions."

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A frustrated grunt interrupted the tense silence that the three players had lapsed into, the source of the disturbance turning to glare at the hacker, who had led them here under the pretense that they would be meeting an old friend of hers. "I thought you said she'd be right here," she said flatly.

Helba only offered a teasing grin in response, and Kite was grateful to see her acting more like herself. "A little impatient, aren't we?"

An indignant snort was her response, and Helba laughed softly, to BlackRose's chagrin and irritation. "She'll be here, don't worry."

"Who's worried?" BlackRose snorted again, crossing her arms in a huff as she pointedly looked the other way. "I just don't like wasting time here."

"Oh?" Helba taunted, her grin widening as the other female's face turned red in anger and embarassment. "And what would you be doing otherwise? I'm sure that staying here in the World must have its benefits, but what could require all of your time and efforts every waking moment of the day? I'm sure it must be exhausting, whatever it is."

Kite held in his laughter, not wanting to anger the girl more than she already was. Her expression at the moment promised death to whoever else dared to interfere.

BlackRose sputtered for a retort, the heat on her cheeks intensifying until she was all but glowing red. "You... you-!"

They were both interrupted, much to Kite's disappointment, by the arrival of their awaited guest. Intricately patterned golden rings fell and faded away to reveal a slender feminine form in their wake, perhaps a bit older than Kite or BlackRose in appearance, but not by much.

She was especially similar to BlackRose in appearance, donning the same elite character-type of the scantily-dressed female heavy blade- which didn't go unnoticed by the other girl. There were subtle differences, of course; where BlackRose had pink hair, this other new girl had brown, the pattern of their tattoos was slightly different, and their armor was somewhat different in color and shape.

Curious indigo-colored eyes landed on Helba first, and immediately a bright smile graced her young face. "Helba! Good to see you again."

Helba returned the smile, nodding in acknowledgement to her curt greeting. "It's good to see you again as well, Mimiru. I'm glad to see you haven't quit playing."

"Mimiru?" BlackRose's face scrunched in confusion as she tried to recall where she'd heard that name before, and as the player turned around at the sound of her name, her eyelids dropped and her ruby eyes narrowed. "Oh. I remember _you_," she said in a low and unfriendly tone.

Anyone who knew BlackRose well enough would have been able to tell that the change in attitude was not out of pure hostility, but rather a simple lack of knowledge on how else to react.

Unfortunately, Mimiru didn't happen to know BlackRose that well.

"Well, nice to see you too!" she shot back, placing her hands on her hips and returning the glare. "Geez, this is how you treat someone trying to help you? I'm not so sure I want to tell you anything anymore."

BlackRose, purely out of pride, only turned her nose up at the statement. "Well, who said I needed _your _help in the first place?"

Kite sighed, scratching his head as he realized he was left to handle damage control. He stepped between the two, feeling a little out of place, considering he was shorter than both of them, but held his hands up in an attempt to placate the two. "Ladies, please don't argue. Mimiru, BlackRose doesn't really mean to be nasty to you, it's just... well, it's just the way she is." He turned to the pink-haired girl, who was opening her mouth to retaliate. "And BlackRose, you know damn well that we need her help, so just try to be nice for the time being, okay?"

Impressed by his sudden show of authority and forwardness, his partner abruptly shut her mouth. '_Did he just swear?_' In all honesty, she would have burst out laughing hysterically if they were alone. As it was, she was desperately trying not to smile. '_I've never heard Kite curse before._' For some reason, the concept of Kite swearing was just so incredibly absurd that it was hilarious to hear such things come out of his mouth. She was trying too hard not to laugh at his sudden use of foul language to notice that she had completely forgotten he had insulted her pride.

Her uncharacteristic cooperation had earned her a strange look from her partner, but he didn't say anything more, deciding it was better not to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Er... Mimiru, Helba has told us that you were closely involved with Tsukasa at one point. Can you tell us anything about his experience of being trapped in the game?"

"Well, yeah, I guess," she said slowly. "But why do you need to know? Didn't you guys kill Morganna already?"

BlackRose glared at the ground, having pushed the thought of laughter to the back of her mind and bringing up the current problem. Kite shifted uneasily, glancing back at Helba, who offered no support. "Yes, we did, but she left us with somewhat of a... parting gift." His expression darkened at the admission. "BlackRose is... she's trapped here, just like Tsukasa once was."

An incredulous gasp escaped Mimiru's lips as her hands flew to her mouth, her wide-eyed gaze darting back and forth between Kite and his disgruntled partner. "No..." she breathed, features darkening with sorrow and pity. "I'm so sorry..."

BlackRose bristled uncomfortably at the look the other girl was giving her, refusing to look up from the ground. "I don't need your sympathy," she muttered, but it was without any heat.

The reprimand didn't deter Mimiru's gaze, nor her pity for the other girl. She looked back at Kite, a light sigh heaving from her lungs. She was obviously remembering something unpleasant, or a time that she didn't wish to be repeated by anyone- even an enemy. "How can I help?"

"Just tell us what you know," he said softly.

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Two hours later, Kite and BlackRose sat discussing the new information, their visitor and Helba having left some time ago.

"All right, let's go over this again," the twin blade said tiredly. BlackRose grimaced in response, an exaggerated sigh escaping her lungs.

"Do we have to?" she complained, putting her hands behind her head and looking up at the artificial sky. "I'm getting a headache, and it's not from staring at a screen all day. We've been over this mo- ...uh, Kite?" she blinked, shifting uneasily under the intense scrutiny of his gaze. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"BlackRose," he said, eerily calm. His demeanor was starting to frighten her, honestly. "Where did you get that cut from?" His gloved hand slowly extended to point at the rather nasty-looking gash on the back of her right arm, previously overlooked because of its place, hidden easily by leaning in the opposite direction.

"Oh, uh, that little scratch?" she laughed nervously, scratching the back of her neck. "Just had a little skirmish with a few Dalaigons... no big deal. Now, about-"

Before she could even finish her sentence, he was beside her, inspecting the wound with a narrowed but obviously concerned gaze. It was at least two feet long, stretching from behind her neck to below her right shoulder blade, and looked painfully deep. It didn't surprise him in the least, but it made him worry, and that made him angry for putting herself in danger. No one but BlackRose would try taking on three Dalaigons at once with no one else in their party. He raised his head to glare at her, frowning. "I thought I told you to be careful?"

"Hey, I was!" she said defensively. "It coulda been a lot worse, y'know!" She wasn't quite sure why she seemed afraid of him at the moment- the thought would have seemed ridiculous under any normal circumstances. "Besides, I'm not exactly used to being able to get injured here!"

"That's precisely why I told you to stay out of trouble," he said, prodding gently at the skin around the wound. She tried not to flinch, but bit back a yelp as he hit a tender spot. He immediately withdrew his hand, brow wrinkling in concentration as he tried to think of a way to bind the injury. Stores in root towns didn't sell first-aid supplies, because normally it was impossible to get injured here. It wasn't a surprise at all- in fact, he'd been expecting this to happen, but it still worried him.

"Kite, I'm fine. Really," she said in a gentle tone. "Don't worry about it."

He took off his hat and ran a hand frustratedly through his blue hair, exhaling loudly and letting his arms drop back down. "How am I supposed to not worry about you, BlackRose? You're reckless and arrogant-" (this elicited a 'hey!' from the girl in question, though he studiously ignored her), "and you never think about the consequences of your actions. I care about you-"

Here an eyebrow was raised on delicate features, garnet eyes penetrating his as she waited for him to finish his sentence. Kite was doing an impressively accurate imitation of a tomato, trying not to stutter and fidgeting slightly.

"I care about you, as my friend and partner, and I don't want you to get hurt," he finished carefully, wisely choosing his words. '_Crap. I hope she doesn't find out what I was really going to say_,' he thought nervously. If she were to find out that he was... was... well, falling for her... she was sure to laugh at him and slap him on the back, or perhaps just slap him. He wasn't sure which one it would be, but he really didn't like either of those possibilities.

'_Coward_,' a voice in the back of his head commented. He inwardly scowled and tried to ignore it. His focus on his inner voice drew his attention away from his partner, so he missed the look of hurt and rejection that briefly flitted across her face.

"Besides," Kite said finally, trying to disregard the sudden tension that had formed between the two. "If I don't worry about you, who will? You obviously don't."

She didn't answer, too caught up in her own thoughts.

Yes, they were both quite pathetic when it came to being mature about relationships.

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They both sat in comfortable silence on a grassy hill overlooking the high cliffs of Dun Loireag, offering a comment every now and then to let the other know what they were thinking. The meeting with Mimiru had helped them gain a lot of needed information, although some of it was hard to process.

Tsukasa had apparently been in almost constant contact with Morganna throughout the duration of his stay in the World, and Mimiru had been reluctant to reveal certain facts that had left a scar on her own conscience. From what she knew, he had undergone a form of torture from the omnipotent presence after disobeying her wishes.

Of course, Morganna had only been partially displeased with him at that point; the last that Kite had heard from her himself, she was absolutely furious.

Truthfully, while it was only mildly disturbing for BlackRose, it absolutely terrified Kite and steeled his resolve and determination to find a cure before something like that happened to the girl.

"...BlackRose?"

"Hmmm?"

"Aren't you... afraid?"

She turned to him in surprise at the question, tilting her head slightly to one side in curiosity. "What makes you ask that?"

"Well... I've seen you afraid before, but you're not acting like it now. If you're trying to hide it from me, I'd like to know. I'm your partner, I just want to help you," he said softly.

She blinked a few times, considering his statement for a moment before looking out over the misty skies. "I suppose you're right, it must seem pretty strange to see me so calm. To be honest, I'm just glad it wasn't you or Kazu." At his startled look, she blushed, but kept her eyes forward. "If someone I cared about were involved, it would be a lot harder to deal with. As it is with just me at risk, I can't say it really scares me all that much."

Too oblivious to be embarassed at the moment, he stared at her, his admiration for the girl before him increasing until he was sure he would make an idiot of himself and swoon. She never ceased to amaze him, no matter what he'd learned to expect from her. "Um, BlackRose? Would you promise not to laugh if I told you something... personal?"

Wow, was he actually going to do it? He wasn't sure himself, but he was damn well going to try.

She looked over at him with one eyebrow raised in question, but nodded anyway. "Sure."

"I... um..." this was the moment of truth. '_Don't blow it, Kenji, be a man_.' This was the only way she'd ever know- there was no going back now. "I..."

She was looking really confused and curious now, and tilted her head to one side again. He inwardly noted that she looked adorable like that.

"I... I've gotta go!" Before she had even a second to respond, he was gone in a flurry of gold rings. She blinked several times, trying to decipher what had just occurred. Shrugging, she just sighed and stood up to head towards the Elf's Haven.

Offline and in his own home, Kenji was banging his head against the wall and cursing himself with every word he knew how.

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A gentle breeze woke her from her peaceful slumber, pastel pink locks tickling her face as she rolled on to her side. She groaned annoyedly as her attempts to reclaim sleep failed, reluctantly sitting up and stretching her arms over her head instead. It was only then that she became aware of her surroundings... or rather, lack thereof. "Huh? ...The hell? What is this?" Confusion mounted steadily, as did her anger and frustration, as once again she failed to recall how she had gotten here or fallen asleep.

Dammit, she was tired of this! Waking up in a place she didn't recognize, not remembering how or when she got there... this wasn't supposed to happen to the hero of the story, goddammit!

The area was completely blank, and quite similar to the place that Lios had first lured her and Kite to and threatened to delete them both. She pressed her hand to the floor, curious as she felt it make contact with a surface that she could not see.

"Where am I? Who the hell brought me here?" she demanded out loud, as if there were someone there to answer her questions. The sound of her voice echoed off of invisible walls, the stark whiteness of the empty room hurting her sleep-filled eyes. "Why am I here?" She growled when she received no answer, raising her voice to yell at her captor or whoever had brought her here. "Hey, answer me!"

There was no response for a number of minutes, but a wavering disturbance in the white environment before her drew her attention. The dark colors were in severe contrast to the white room, making her squint to see the figure that was forming.

BlackRose scrambled to her feet, quickly pulling a sword from her inventory and holding it expertly before her in a defensive stance. "Who are you?" Whoever, or _what_ever this thing was, it couldn't be normal. Players could only travel from place to place by gating in and out, and that was definitely not was this thing was doing.

There was no noise, and no indication that the... thing, whatever it was, had heard her. She frowned, taking a cautious step forward to get a better look at the small figure, and withheld a gasp as the last pieces of the image formed. '_What the..?_'

Hovering before her was a strange cat-like figure, donning ragged brown clothing that seemed to suit his character, and a similarly-colored brown witch's hat. His furry pelt appeared to be two different colors, the two tones of purple and white outlining his small feline form, dividing it in what seemed to be perfect halves. There was a white star formed over his eye on the side that was purple, and briefly BlackRose wondered how the data had been edited so precisely as to include such intricate detail. And... why cats? Did the programmer have some sort of obsession with the feline species?

The most startling feature of the cat was his narrowed blood-red eyes, which disturbingly had no pupils. His eerie glare set her on edge, instinctively making her grip her sword more tightly. She wondered if this cat-figure was somehow connected to Mia, but passed off the thought quickly in favor of acting first. Of course, without Kite around, that was always her method- swing first and ask questions later. The murderously angry look on the character's face was proof enough that he shouldn't be trusted.

Why was he so furious with her? What had she done to piss him off? She was sure she'd never seen him before... a face like that she would've remembered. Not knowing what else to do, she glared back at him, preparing to lunge forward, when he opened his mouth to speak.

Any witness to this strange phenomenon would not have heard the cat player character's voice, as few could- but BlackRose happened to be one of those few. The single word he spoke startled her, as she'd heard it before, being the names of one of the phases. Apparently, it was his name as well.

Of course, this still didn't explain why he looked absolutely livid, upper lip curled back to reveal fanged teeth in a deadly snarl.

Was it a coincidence that he had the same name as the phase that Mia had become after surrenduring to the system? Perhaps the two cat-like characters had more to do with each other than she had thought. She made a mental note to inquire about it later, taking a small step forward and addressing her angry visitor, putting her sword back into her inventory for the moment and opting to talk with the cat instead. Even though he didn't look friendly to her at all, she had the distinct impression that he wouldn't hurt her as long as she kept her distance, for now at least.

"...Macha?"


	5. Calling Out to You

**Catch Me When I Fall**

**Author's Note**: I think I'm doing pretty well with this story, and I'm proud of it thus far. I haven't gotten off subject or lost sight of the main plotline, so all is well right now. Sorry for having taken so long to get this chapter out, but I ran into some major writer's block. I know what I want to have happen in the remainder of this story... I just don't know quite how to get there yet. Don't worry, though... it may take a while, but I promise I will finish it. There are a few notes at the bottom of this chapter that you should read- I addressed a lot of the questions/comments made by readers on this story. Please don't stop reviewing- I love your input, and I can always use more to make this story better!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own .hack or any of its characters, and I'm getting tired of having to type that. Can't we just say I own it and let it go?

Chapter Five – **Calling Out to You**

"...Macha?"

The cat character responded with what looked like an indignant sneer, crossing his arms and stubbornly looking away. Yes, BlackRose thought flatly, he was definitely related to Mia somehow. That didn't explain why he looked absolutely livid at her, though.

"What did I ever do to you?" she asked, irritated.

Macha gave her what appeared to be an incredulous stare with his pupil-less red eyes, raising one hand, and BlackRose noted absently that he also had the pink pads of a cat's paw beneath his fingers. She was confused when he pointed one of those fingers at her, but didn't have the time to ponder its meaning before a stinging agony overtook her senses, blocking out the outside world.

With a gasp she fell to her knees, clutching at her midsection and heaving desperate breaths through the blinding red haze of pain. '_What's happening?_' she thought in a panic. She looked to the small feline for an answer, but he just remained as he had been, a stoic look cast down at her trembling form, only a hint of rage shining through his red eyes. She would have growled at him had she still posessed the energy and the necessary amount of oxygen to do so, but as it was, her situation was quite desperate.

"Why..?" she wheezed finally, cringing at the toll it took on her aching lungs.

It passed over his face so quickly that she wasn't even sure it had been there to begin with, but for one split second Macha appeared to waver in his decision. He almost looked... unsure, and a bit sympathetic, perhaps? It was gone in a fleeting instant, but it left a small change of his expression in its wake- one she could only identify as uncertainty. He apparently hadn't expected the reaction she was giving him, and that made her wonder what else he had predicted she'd do.

It was then that she knew this creature could not possibly be involved with Morganna. The omnipotent enemy lacked compassion or any sort of a conscience whatsoever, and this cat player was clearly showing hesitation on the grounds of morality. No one who would have willingly slain a poor, innocent young girl like Aura could claim that they still had a conscience. Did that mean that Macha had any semblance of a heart? Mia had, after all, had a soft spot for Elk.

Deciding that the idea was fairly plausible and was worth a try in testing, BlackRose lifted her head enough to cast what she hoped was a pleading look towards the cat, silently asking for mercy from the stabbing pain piercing her abdomen. Normally she would have been too proud to even consider doing such a thing, but the overwhelming agony that ripped through her stomach left her with little dignity as she clutched at the invisible wound.

As she had thought, Macha appeared to falter, confusion and pity alighting and replacing the unkempt fury that had dominated his expression. The pain in her stomach lessened slightly as his hand drew back, and she took the opportunity to lean back and observe what the problem was.

What she saw made her blood run cold.

It was... data. Raw data code, like the pieces of the World that had been damaged after the defeat of Magus. There was an unstable patch of it over her bare stomach, and she watched the continuous string of 1's and 0's of binary code scroll through the patch of damaged data with an eerie fascination. The patch was only about as big as her hand, but she had the feeling that it wouldn't stay that small for long.

She'd seen this type of thing before, when Kite used Data Drain... but that didn't explain at all what was happening to her. She had never thought much of it- seeing data in a corrupted program made sense, this _was _a computer game, after all... but why this? Why now? Why _her_?

Petrified, she turned wide garnet eyes back up to Macha, and he looked startled at the sincerity and obvious human emotion behind her gaze. She wondered again what he'd been expecting, but he didn't appear to be willing to tell her anything. Had she been in her right mind, she'd have been angry- furious at him, even, but right now she just feared for her life and prayed for release from the horrible pain she'd experienced moments before.

It was a few minutes before Macha withdrew his hand completely, looking as confused and unsure as ever. To her extreme relief, the pain faded almost completely until it was nothing but a dull ache.

She had to wonder if this was really the Macha she had heard about- both from rumors and from Mimiru... although those two descriptions contradicted each other to begin with. Mimiru's explanation of the cat depicted him as a selfless hero, as he sacrificed himself to the system to save Tsukasa, while the rumors talked about on the board referred to him as 'evil' and 'malicious'. Neither of those seemed to suit him, but that was not foremost in her mind at the moment.

"What's happening to me?" BlackRose breathed softly, crimson hues begging for the cat player character to provide her with some answers. He only stared at her in response, as if trying to discern for himself whether she was friend or foe. He appeared to be just as lost as she was, and that wasn't good. She wanted answers, and he seemed to be the only one who could give them.

"Wait!" she cried when he turned his back to her, looking as if he were about to leave. An unfamiliar sensation of power rose within her, and before she knew what she was doing, she called out to him in a commanding tone, "Macha."

The voice that left her mouth was not her own, nor was it like anything she'd ever heard before. It echoed like it was spoken through a megaphone, reverberating off of the invisible white walls and resounding within her head with a strange air of power and invulnerability.

Macha was instantly back on alert, whirling with fur standing on end, claws extended, and teeth bared in a very feline hiss. The untamed ferocity that had slowly diminished from his eyes was now back with a vengeance, radiating hatred and hostility towards her.

BlackRose's hand had flown to her throat when she'd heard the strange sound leave her mouth, garnet irises wide with confusion as she fought back her panic and fear. _What _was going _on_!

"Helba..." she whispered to herself frantically, hauling herself to her feet. "I need to find Helba."

Her instincts told her to go to Kite, to seek protection in his arms as she had always done, but something stopped her. She had a terrible feeling that if she involved him in this, he would end up hurt. She would prevent that, no matter what.

In a flash she was gone from the room, leaving Macha in such haste that she failed to notice that she had not used the conventional way of traveling by the gold rings.

-----------------------------------------------------

"Hm... this is very bad..." Helba murmured softly, touching her hand to her chin as she lost herself in thought.

"Yeah, _thanks_ Helba, I _never_ would have been able to figure that out myself," BlackRose sneered sarcastically, obviously at the end of her rope in patience. The hacker shot her a reprimanding glance, but was only met with an unrelenting hostile glare. She'd _had _it with waiting, she wanted to do something about this _now_.

Helba sighed heavily and shook her head, platinum blonde locks strewn messily across her shoulders as it settled again. "So, you say you met this cat character that Mimiru described to you... Macha, was it?" At the younger girl's affirming nod, she continued, "Did he say anything to you? Another name, or some sort of description, maybe?"

BlackRose's right eye twitched uncontrollably as she fought to suppress the anger at the pointless direction this conversation was already taking. "Don't you think I would have mentioned if he said anything important already?" she ground out icily. "No. He didn't talk to me at all. He just told me his name, and that was it."

Helba's eyebrows knitted together in concentration. "Let me see your... injury again."

Another irate sigh heaved through the younger girl's lungs at the command, but she reached down to untie the scrap of cloth that she had tied haplessly around her ribs, just below where her chest armor ended. It looked strange to outsiders, no doubt, but it wouldn't arouse questions or suspicion from other players. The patch of damaged data was still as disturbing and unfamiliar to BlackRose as it was the first time she saw it, and she cringed momentarily as the throbbing ache in her stomach became more noticeable.

"So, this cat character just pointed at you, and it started to hurt?" Helba inquired, drawing BlackRose's attention to her once more as she nodded. "And you did absolutely nothing to make him angry?" the hacker asked again, somewhat suspiciously as BlackRose frowned and glared, but shook her head. "Well, from what you told me, it sounds like he was expecting that you were someone else, someone he obviously didn't like... did Mimiru mention anything about Macha having enemies?"

BlackRose shook her head, wrinkling her brow as she fought to recall their conversation through the cloud that was seemingly beginning to form over her mind. "She said he worked for Morganna until the very end, when he sacrificed himself for Tsukasa, but she didn't say anything about any personal grudges."

Helba sighed once more, folding her arms and shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I still don't have enough to go on, here. I'll contact Mimiru again and ask her some questions... maybe she can clarify this. Until then, BlackRose, I suggest you stay out of trouble. Stay close to Kite for the time being."

"Trouble? Me?" the said heavy blade grinned. "I have no idea what you're talking about." For a reason that she couldn't comprehend, something inside her was still telling her not to go to Kite, that it would somehow be dangerous to him. She had no idea what was telling her this and why, but she'd learned to trust her instincts, and Kite's safety was not something she was willing to gamble with.

Helba shook her head with a rueful smile, turning to prepare to gate out. "I'll contact you again soon." And then she was gone.

Rolling her eyes, BlackRose stood up straight and exaggeratedly mocked Helba's dramatic exit. "I'll contact you again soon," she imitated in an overly deep voice, then 'tch'-ed. "Like she's some kind of master hacker. Who hacks an online game, anyways?" She hoisted her large sword onto her shoulder once again, turning to leave after her makeshift bandage was re-tied around her torso. "You'd think that'd be more useful in an exchange site or bank site or something..."

As she left, BlackRose failed to notice one key detail that she had left out in her conversation with Helba... for some reason, she no longer had any recollection of calling out to Macha in a voice that wasn't hers, or the aura of power that it practically radiated.

**Author's Note**: There are some things that I would like to make clear before we continue on with this story. I've been receiving a few concerning questions and comments regarding the understanding of the series and my view of the story's events.

a.) While I do know that Mia _is_ Macha, in a sense, I believe that Mia is the reincarnation of Macha, and incarnations don't necessarily have to occur in the same gender. Yes, Mia is female, and although Macha was never defined as a male or female, there were several occasions in which Macha was referred to as a 'he'. It could have just been a mistake or a false assumption on the speaker's part, but it was there nonetheless. I prefer to believe that the intent of the series was for Macha to remain genderless, thus the main reason he lacked a voice, but I also prefer to believe that it is left up to the audience to decide what Macha really is. Reincarnation is, in essence, a soul that is carried from one life to another, and I don't believe souls have a gender. Keep in mind that in Mia's resurrection, you had to _kill _Macha before she would come back- thus, creating the same process in which the soul was reincarnated into another body. Mia and Macha are not one and the same- they just happen to share the same soul.

b.) I do agree to some extent that a character's hair color would be an easy identification for who the character might be, but the fact that the heavy blade who attacked a player's party's hair color was not mentioned was because it was being spread as gossip, not an informant for someone who would hunt down the said character. A person listening to someone else describing an interesting experience would probably pay no mind to what the character's physical appearance was, unless something was out of the ordinary- like the black eyes or malfunctioning voice synthesizer. I didn't just leave out the hair color because it would be a dead-giveaway (although that definitely had a part in it), but partly because of the fact that it would be more likely that a rumor of a female heavy-blade with a weird skill would be going around, rather than a female pink-haired heavy-blade with a weird skill.

c.) Yes, I am aware that Tsukasa is a girl, not a guy. If you noticed, all the characters that referred to her as a 'he' were characters that were never directly involved with her situation, and therefore would have no clue about the mixed up gender. Yes, Helba knew _of _Tsukasa, but she didn't know her personally.

d.) I don't intend to include many characters from .hack/sign, mainly because this story is centered around the game, not the series- and while I did enjoy watching the series and playing the game, I don't believe they'd mix together well. I'm not going to put Tsukasa in this story, because I believe that his/her experience of being trapped within the game would be traumatic enough for her to not want to return, and her making an appearance would take away from the seriousness of BlackRose's problem. The plot is meant to be centered around Kite and BlackRose, and I'm afraid I'm going to keep it that way, regardless of what you readers tell me you want to see happen. Your opinions _do _matter to me, I just don't intend to let it interfere with what I have planned. Besides, I don't think I could portray any of the .hack/sign characters very well, because I don't know them especially well.

I am truly sorry if any of you disagree with my views, but please don't be mad at me for it. D: And please don't stop reviewing!


	6. Panic and Heartache

**Catch Me When I Fall**

**Author's Note**: Er... hi? Uhm, sorry for the long wait. You'll probably kill me for this, but I've had half of this chapter written for the past five months. I just finished it tonight. Heh, heh... don't kill me! ;-; I like living. I promise there's going to be lots of drama in the next few chapters, and maybe even some fluffy romance, if my reviewers want it (hinthint). Oh, and by the way... in response to a couple reviews I got... keep in mind, this is after you beat the .hack games. However, if you noticed, the story picked up directly after the defeat of Corbenik, so please note that Mia has _not _been brought back yet. This story would be taking place before Mia's ressurrection, so Macha being in existance at this time is what actually happened in the game.

**Disclaimer**: Don't own it. Don't sue. Don't laugh, because I'll kill you. (That was a very short poem, in case you didn't notice.)

Chapter Six – **Panic and Heartache**

Kite was in near hysteria as he scoured the root towns for any sign of his missing partner, no doubt scaring a few players with his desperate inqueries about if they'd seen the heavy blade. BlackRose did tend to make a scene when she was in these root towns, making it a point frighten the newbies, so it was unlikely that she would have been there if they hadn't seen her. The fact that _no one _in _any_ of the root towns had seen her in the past few hours was getting close to giving him a heart attack. Yes, it was possible that she was just hanging around a particular field or taking her sweet time clearing out a dungeon, but BlackRose was such an impatient person, she almost _never _stayed in one place for more than half an hour. She had to have gated in to one of the root towns first if she went to another field, and besides the unlikeliness of that, it just wasn't like her to not show up when she was supposed to meet him. Usually, _she _was the one always standing and waiting for _him_, and would frequently give him a good verbal beating if he was more than two minutes late. This wasn't like her at all.

"Yasu-- ...er, Orca!" Kite caught himself before he called his friend by his real name, still not quite used to using a different name for a person he'd known for so long. Said blademaster turned abruptly at the sound of his title, a half grin gracing his painted face when he laid eyes upon the red-garbed twin blade.

"What's up, Kite?" he took note of the smaller boy's panicked appearance and frazzled nerves. "Late for another meeting with your partner?" he snickered. The last few times that he'd caught his friend running through the streets of Mac Anu, he was always out of breath and in a rush to get away, muttering something about being late. He found it utterly hilarious that Kite was so wrapped around BlackRose's finger; but even he had to admit, that girl could be downright scary when provoked. He suppressed a shudder at a vivid memory from a few days ago, when he'd volunteered to escort her to a dungeon in Kite's absence, and she'd nearly bitten his head off when they'd reached the second floor, and she had already had to revive him twice. It wasn't his fault, really... how was he supposed to know that she was at level 99? Level 50 was pretty high for general standards, and he hadn't been around for months!

"Have you seen BlackRose? She was supposed to meet me an _hour_ ago!"

Orca's knowing grin widened as his earlier suspicions were confirmed, but at the look of sheer panic on his friend's face, his mirth began to fade. "Are you sure she didn't just forget?"

He'd doubted she _could _forget, being trapped in this game, anyway, and the look on Kite's face affirmed that he didn't think so, either.

"_Forget_? Are you _crazy_? She wouldn't just _forget_! I-"

"Easy, easy there, Kenji," Yasuhiko reverted to calling his friend by his true name in order to catch his attention while trying to temper his frenzied desperation. "We'll find her, okay? Just calm down, man."

The use of his real name surprised Kite into thinking through his words, and after taking a moment to try and relax, he nodded to Orca. The blademaster nodded back sagely, pleased to see that his friend had a little better grip on his sanity. "Now, where was the last place you saw her?"

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She didn't have much time. She knew he was looking for her, and she could only prolong the inevitable for so long.

Where the hell was that damn cat when you needed him!

Another sharp, stabbing pain in the region of her abdomen drove BlackRose to her knees with its intensity, wheezing with the effort it took not to cry out in pain.

She'd been wandering fields for hours now, attempting to locate Macha with the intent of beating some answers out of him. She had taken notice of the strange ability to teleport between fields without using the Chaos Gate, and it confused her- but she decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. She could not afford to run into Kite right now, and she knew that either he or one of his friends would be stationed there, waiting to catch a glimpse of her when she gated out and report back to him about it.

Dammit, that boy was persistent.

Despite the annoyance, however, the thought that he was doing it for her brought a small smile to her lips. He had protected her so many times. This time, she was going to protect him.

In blatant defiance of the steady throb of agony that was gradually growing larger on her stomach, she stumbled to her feet, breathing hard. In the course of the time since she'd left Helba, new spots of raw data code had begun to appear on her body- random splotches of damaged data littered her skin like ugly tattoos, and were continuing to grow larger.

She was running out of time.

---------------------------------------------------

"_Dammit_! I _knew _I shouldn't have left her... I'm such an idiot!" Kite raved hours later, pacing the littered streets of Net Slum aggravatedly and throwing up his arms to accentuate his words. The term 'worried sick' wouldn't have done him justice... no, Kite was well beyond that. He was _terrified_, guilt-stricken, and rapidly losing his sanity to desperation. He _needed_ to find her. He wasn't sure he'd be able to keep his head on straight unless he did.

"You couldn't possibly have known anything was going to happen," Wiseman offered.

"That's no excuse! God, I left her _alone _and _defenseless _here just to go take a fucking _nap_! What kind of friend am I!"

"One who desperately needed a good night's sleep, and was probably pressured into taking it, if I know my sister at all," Kazu said loudly. He was sitting on the ground and leaning back against a wall with his staff tucked into his arms, watching Kite with a kind of detached concern. He himself was exhausted from what had been going on, and he had been sleeping relatively well since his sister started with this ordeal- he couldn't even imagine what her partner was going through. "Stop blaming yourself. You know she'd be pissed at you for it."

The twin blade paused, dropping his hands as a heavy sigh assaulted his form. "She would, wouldn't she?" Leaning back against the wall opposite from Kazu, he slumped down to sit with his knees in the air and his head drooping. "I can't help it. I just... she's been such a great friend to me, and all I've ever done is put her through danger and heartache."

The three of them had been stationed at Net Slum for a little over an hour now, waiting to hear back from Helba. The hacker was not easy to track down, so they couldn't afford to miss a meeting with her when she might be able to help find the missing girl. Without a set meeting time, though, it appeared as though the older woman was taking her sweet time.

"You know, she says the exact same thing about you," the young wavemaster said with a smile, interrupting his brooding session. Kite's head jerked up in surprise, confusion etching itself onto his features.

"What-"

"You were always the one she talked to me about when I was in the hospital, in that coma. I don't think she ever realized that I heard her, but I do remember everything that she told me." Kazu smiled as he looked towards the distorted sky. "She always had a new adventure to tell me about when she came to visit, and there was always something about you that she included. She thinks very highly of you, you know."

Kite just blinked, stunned into silence.

"She always had something to say about how brave you were, or how much you helped her," Kazu continued. "From the stories she told me, she always made you sound like a hero." He chuckled here. "Not that you aren't, but I think her opinion was just a little biased."

Kite managed a weak smile in return.

"Sometimes she would talk to me about how scared she was, or how worried she was that I would never wake up- but the next day she'd be back to normal, saying something about how you showed her she wasn't alone in her fear or something like that."

Kite reminisced on a time that he'd been feeling alone and unsure, when BlackRose had bullied him back into believing that what they were doing was right, that he wasn't the only one facing these dangers.

It didn't make sense that she said he had done all those things for her. Maybe, on some unconscious level, forcing her to make him confront those fears had made her do the same..? Whatever the case, Kazu's words had made him more sure of one thing than anything else in the world. BlackRose was a friend worth dying for.

A small chime interrupted his musings and drew Kite's attention to his inbox. He had new mail.

Quickly dredging up an excuse for his sudden jumpiness to his comrades, he opened the mail and eagerly scanned its contents. The corner of the mail window with the sender's ID and picture caught his attention for a brief moment, and his eyes widened in disbelief. It couldn't be... could it?

It was Aura.

How was she alive? He'd seen her die... hell, he'd _stabbed _her with his own dagger! But the message was clear as day, as was her picture.

Wait... clear as day?

Something wasn't right about this.

After a moment of silent deliberation, Kite came to the conclusion that no, he wasn't seeing things, and yes, that was Aura's name and picture and perfectly punctuated message in the e-mail's text box. The blurred image of the mysterious white girl and the garbled number-letter messages she had sent him before seemed to be her only way of communicating with him through the system before, but he supposed now that the World was back to its original self, she had no need for such.

But that didn't explain why she still existed.

There was time to figure that out later, he supposed, pushing it back in his mind as his heart leapt at the sight of what he'd been hoping for- three keywords. Aura wanted to meet with him.

In an instant he was on his feet, and babbled an excuse to his friends before immediately gating out and bringing up the gate jump keywords he had acquired. If anyone had answers for BlackRose's problem, it would be Aura. Hope blossomed in his chest as he gated into a foresty area in a blur of gold rings, sprinting past monsters and heading straight for the dungeon.

She was there, just like he knew she would be. "Aura," he breathed reverently as he stared at the girl, who floated with an ethereal glow. Something seemed different about her, though... something he couldn't quite place. After studying her for a moment, a gasp of surprise alerted her to the realization that he had noticed.

She was smiling.

And the aura of sadness about her was gone.

"Kite," she spoke urgently, needing to make her point as her smile faded into a serious expression. "I have some things you need to know. But first-" she held out a pale-skinned hand, closing her eyes in concentration as a glow formed about his wrist where the bracelet had once been. In a brilliant flash of light, she withdrew her hand, and the bracelet glowed and pulsed over his arm.

"The bracelet?" he questioned in pure confusion. "But why..?"

The young girl shook her head to stay his question. "That's not important right now."

The red-clothed twin blade waited anxiously for her to continue.

"Kite," Aura whispered, her tone suddenly hushed and urgent, as if she was afraid of someone overhearing them. "Time is running out. Stop her, Kite. Stop her, before it's too late."

"Stop who?" Kite asked, more confused than ever. "What are you talking about, Aura? I don't understand a word of what you're saying."

"Mother. Stop Mother."

**Author's Note**: Okay okay, sorry for the wait I have a valid excuse, but if I told you, I don't think you'd care. I'm still working hard on this story- I've said before, don't worry; I never leave a story unfinished. The details on how I want this to end are still a little fuzzy to me, so I'll probably require some time to work them out, but right now I'm confident that I'll have this done within a couple months. Pleeeease continue reviewing, wonderful people, I love hearing your input. There is much much juicy angst coming up in the next few chapters, so you can look forward to that!


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